Job seekers line up to apply at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Ottawa

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Ottawa is hiring hundreds of people to fill positions at the site ahead of its grand opening. CTV’s Austin Lee reports.

Dozens of people lined up at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Ottawa in the city’s south end, hoping to land a job at one of Ottawa’s newest hotels.

The first job fair runs until 7 p.m. Tuesday, one of three hiring events Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Ottawa will host ahead of the opening of the new facility later this spring.

An estimated 200 people were in line when the job fair opened at 12 p.m.

“We are very excited to be part of this first massive job fair. We’re going to be hiring over 200 food and beverage team members,” Wesley Boodhram, vice-president of food and beverage, told CTV News Ottawa Tuesday afternoon. “Very excited for our place in Ottawa and in the community.”

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More than 650 positions will be filled over the next few weeks at the new facility on Albion Road, at the Rideau Carleton Raceway.

“These job fairs will feature on-the-spot interviews and job offers for a wide variety of positions, giving candidates a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become part of the world-renowned Hard Rock brand,” Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Ottawa said in a statement.

Positions are open in all departments, including customer service, food and beverage, hotel services, table games, security and retail.

“It’s called an open call job fair, it’s the equivalent to an audition,” Nanette Dean, vice-president of human resources at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, told CTV Morning Live last week. “All of our departments are going to be hiring across the property, but the big focus is on our food and beverage roles, and our hotel roles, security, retail. We’re hiring from entry level all the way to supervisor and management roles.”

The second job fair will be held on May 6 and 7 between 12 p.m. and 7 p.m., while the third “hiring event” is set for May 22. Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Ottawa encourages people to set up a profile online before visiting the hiring events.

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa will include a 150-room hotel, an expanded casino with 1,600 slot machines and 40 live action table games, a sportsbook, more than 10 restaurants and bars, and a live theatre venue with 1,800 seats. It’s a $350 million investment in a facility.

“We’re going to have a really beautiful casino, great food and beverage, we have the raceway joined to this property,” Boodhram said. “So the entertainment experience with our beautiful hotel will be the destination in Ottawa both for entertainment and, overall, a great weekend out.”

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Toula Mazloum